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The minor league baseball park where players like Jose Canseco and Miguel Tejada suited up as pimply faced single-A-level neo-pros was torn down this week to make room for a new Super Wal-Mart. So much for luring a minor league team back to Southern Oregon's Rogue Valley. But, alas, there will be no shortage of made-in-China-bicycles (full suspension mountain bikes for under $60, which also happen to not work for more than a week, if at all), no shortage of made-in-Indonesia textiles (clothing and quilting that is neither well made nor fashionable), and no shortage of obese teenagers exiting the superstore, arms full of fast food and hydrogenated snack things.

Wal-Mart has, however, been sure to secure significant advertising space on the local TV stations and the nearby NPR radio affiliate (though that's innocuously called "underwriting," not advertising) -- advertising in which they tout their good public works and community involvement.